Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-06-08

OF NORTH ana DOuCns JerenlauS OF war time
that have never been syllabled.
Beside that domestic perturbation an
homesickness of those days put the swee
domesticity of to- day. The only camp-fir
you now ever sit at is the one kindled il
stove or furnace or hearth. Instead of
half ration of salt pork, repast luxurian
because partaken of by loving family circl
and in secret condolences. o, now see VIII
those letters were for, the letters you, th
young soldier, took so long in your tent t.
write, and that you were so particular f
put in the mail without any one seeing yel
lest you be teased by your comrades. Go,
spared you to get back, and though the oil
people have gone, you have home of you
| own construction, and you often contras
those awful absences and filial and broth
erly and lovely heartbreaks with you
present residence. which is the deares
place you will find this side of heaven. Th
place where your children were born is tb,
place where you want to die. To write tn,
figures of 1862 set up four crystals, crys
tails of tears. 70 write the figures of 1888
l stand up four members of your household
figures OF resy cheeks and flaxen hair, if
can get them to stand still long enough.
Contrast also the religious opportunities
OF twenty years ago with now. Often OF
the march from Sunday morn till night, o.
commanded by officers who considered th'
names of God and Christ of no use excep
to swear by. Sometimes the drumhead
the pulpit and you standing in heat or cold
all the surroundings of military life having
tendency to make you reckless. M
privacy for prayer or Bible-reading. NJ
sound of church bells. Sabbaths spent fal
from, bn
brought up. Now, the choicest sanctuaries
easy pew, all Christian surroundings, the
air full of God and Christ and heaven and
doxology. Three mountains lifting them
selves into the holy lght-Mount Sina
laundering its law, Mount Calvary pleadins
the Sacrifice, Mount Pisgah displaying the
Promised Land.
Contrast of national condition 1862
spending money, by the millions, in devas
tation of property and life; 1887, the fnan
ces SO reconstructed that all the stock
gamblers Of Wall street combined cannot
make national panic; 1862, surgeons ol
the land setting broken bones, and amputa
ting gangrened limbs, and studying gun
shot fractures, and inventing easy ambu.
ances for the wounded and dying; 1887,
surgeons giving their attentions to those
in casualty of agriculture, of commerce OF
mechanical life, the rushing of the ambu
lance through our streets, not suggesting
battle, but quick relief of some one fallen
in peaceful industries; 1862, thirty.five
million inhabitants in this land; 1887, fifty.
five millions; 1862. wheat, about eighty
million bushels; 1887, the wheat will be
about five hundred million bushels; 1862,
Pacific coast five weeks from the Atlantic
1887, for three reasons, Union Pacific,
Southern Pacific and Northern Pacific, only
seven days across. Look at the long line
of churches, universities, asylums and
houses with which during the last few
years this land has been decorated.
Living soldiers of the North and South,
take new and special ordination at this sea-
son of the year, to garland the sepulchres
of your fallen comrades. Nothing is too
good for their memories. Turn all the pri-
vate tombs and the national cemeteries in
to gardens. Ye dead of Malvern Hill, and
Cold Harbor, and Murfreesboro, and Man.
assas Junction. and Cumberland Gap, and
field hospital, receive these floral offerings
of the living soldiers.
But they shall come again, all the dead
troops. We sometimes talk about earthly
military reviews, such as took place in Paris
in the time of Marshal Ney, in London in
the time of Wellington, and in our own
land, but what tame things compared with
the final review, when all the armies of the
ages shall pass for divine and angelic in
spectiou. St. John says the armies of
heaven ride on white horses, and l don't
know but many of the cavalry horses of
earthly battles, that were wounded and
worn out in service, may have resurrection.
1t would be only fair that, raised up and
ennobled, they would be resurrected for the
grand review of the judgment day. 1t
would not take any more power to recon-
struct their bodies than to reconstruct ours,
and should be very glad to see them
among the white horses of Apocalyptic WIS.,
ion. Hark to the trumpet blast, the reveil-
le of the last judgment! They come up.
All the armies of all lands aud all centuries,
on whichever side they fought, whether
for freedom or despotism, for the right or
the wrong. They come! They come! Da-
rius and Cyrus, and Sennacherib, and JOSH
ua, and David leading forth the armies of
Scriptural times: Hannibal and Hamilcar
leading forth the armies of the Carthagin-
ians; Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi lead
ing OH the armies of the Italians; Tanner
lane and Ghengis Khan followed by the
armies of Asia; Gustavus Adolphus, and
Ptolemy Philopater, and Xerxes and Alex
ander, and Semiramis, and Washington,
leading battalion after battalion. The
dead American armies of 1776 and 1872,
and one million of Northern and Southern
dead in our civil war. They come up.
They pass on in review. The six million
fallen in Napoleonic battles, the twelve
million Germans fallen in the thirty years
war, the fifteen million fallen in the wal
under Sesostris, the twenty million fallen in
the wars of Justinian, the twenty five mil
lion fallen in Jewish wars, the eighty mil.
lion fallen in the Crusades, the 1870 million
fallen in the wars with Saracens and Turks,
the thirty-fve billion men estimated to have
fallen in battle, enough, according to one
statstician, if they stood four abreast, tc
reach clear around the earth 442 times.
But we shall have time to see them pass
in review before the throne of Judgment,
the cavalrymen, the artillerymen, the spear
men, the infantry, the sharpshooters, the
gunners, the sappers, the miners, the arch
ers, the skirmishers, men of all colors, O
all epaulets, Of all standards, of all weapon
ry, of all countries. Let the earth be es
pecially balanced to bear their tread. For
ward! Forward Let the orchestra of tht
heavenly galleries play the grand march
Joined by all the fifers, drummers and mill
tary bands that ever sounded victory or de
feat at Eylau or Borodina, Marathon o.
Thermopyla, Bunker Hill or Yorktown
Solferino or Balaclava, Sedan or Gettys
burg, from the time when Joshua halted
astronomy above Gideon and Ajalon til
the last man surrendered to Garnet Wolse
ley at Tel-el- -Ke-bir. Nations, companies
battalions, ages, centuries and the universe
Forward in the grand review of the Judg
mentl Forward! Gracious and eternal God
on that day may it be found that we are al
marching in the right regiment and that w
carried the right standard, and that W,
fought under the right commander, al
heaven, some ON amethystine battlemen
and others standing in the shining gates
some on pearly shore and others on turretet
heights, giving us the resoundng, million
voiced cheer: ''Lo him that overcometh!'
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from
everlasting to everlasting, aud let tn,
whole earth be filled with his glory. Amer
and Amen!
Mans inhumanity to woman make
countless thousands mourn, would be al
applicable rendering of Burns's line, il